| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 144 pages) : illustrations |
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text txt rdacontent |
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computer c rdamedia |
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online resource cr rdacarrier |
| Series |
ACLS Humanities E-Book.
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| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Contents |
Introduction / Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz -- The Letters -- Unraveling the Mystery of the Letters / Phoebe Rolin Mitchell -- Love Across the Color Line / Kathy Peiss -- The Springfield of Channing Lewis, A Colored Man / Louis Wilson. |
| Summary |
This book examines a remarkable collection of twenty-seven letters written by a white working-class woman to her African American lover in 1907 and 1908. Stuffed inside a black lace stocking, the letters were hidden under the floorboards of a house in Northampton, Massachusetts, until their recent discovery. Reflecting the passions and anxieties of the moment, the letters were written by Alice Hanley, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants, to Channing Lewis, a cook in Springfield. Since the thoughts and feelings of women like Hanley have usually been filtered through middle-class reformers, her words provide a rare window into a realm of American social life seldom explored by historians. The letters are accompanied by essays that skillfully probe their larger meanings. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz introduces the letters, placing them in the context of their time, while journalist Phoebe Rolin Mitchell recounts the story of their discovery. Kathy Peiss explores Hanley's life, her negotiation of illicit love, and her desire for respectability, re-creating a dense and textured world of home, church, and town. Historian Louis Wilson unearths the trail left by Lewis and members of his extended family in Springfield. Reviewing the experiences of African Americans in that city, Wilson clarifies the economic, social, and political position of a black, middle-aged breadwinner during the difficult years of the early twentieth century. |
| Reproduction |
Electronic text and image data. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University of Michigan, Michigan Publishing, 2024. EPUB file. ([ACLS Humanities E-Book]) |
| Note |
All rights reserved. |
| Subject |
Love-letters.
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Women, White -- Biography.
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African American men -- Biography.
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Man-woman relationships.
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Massachusetts -- Social life and customs.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Added Author |
Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz, editor.
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Peiss, Kathy Lee, editor.
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American Council of Learned Societies, issuing body.
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| In: |
ACLS Humanities E-Book. http://www.humanitiesebook.org/ |
| ISBN |
0585083657 (electronic bk.) |
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9780585083650 (electronic bk.) |
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155849023X |
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1558490248 |
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9781558490239 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
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9781558490246 (paper ; alk. paper) |
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9781685750589 (ebk) |
| Standard No. |
heb40175 hdl |
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